Wings Over South Africa

For many years I have been captivated by Africa largely because of silver-screen sagas like The Snows of Kilimanjaro and Out of Africa and the writings of Ruark and Capstick. In 1990 I made my first trip to Africa, and since then I have returned 27 times to photograph the varied wildlife and hunt the continent’s fantastic array of gamebirds and waterfowl. As they say, “Once you get African soil under your fingernails, you’re compelled to return time and time again.” I guess that’s what has happened to me.
For decades Africa was a popular big-game hunting destination, with bird shooting little more than a sideline. During the past 20 years, however, wingshooting there has come of age. Today bird shooting takes place across the continent, with the infrastructure best developed in South Africa. Here a cadre of professional hunters offers quality bird shooting as stand-alone packages or in combination with big game. Many of them have leased large tracts of land, obtained trained pointers and retrievers, and hired adequate staff, and most of them are bird-shooting aficionados themselves.
Since its first truly democratic election in 1994, South Africa has welcomed the restoration of political calm and emerged as a stable and popular tourist destination. From the wine-producing region of the Cape to the semi-tropics of coastal KwaZulu-Natal Province and the bushveld of the Northern Province, South Africa offers a climate and outdoor adventure to suit nearly every desire.
A bird-shooting safari in South Africa starts with a 17-hour flight from New York, Washington, D.C., or Atlanta. It is a monumental undertaking, but for me the flight passes quickly in anticipation of the hunt. (The return flight is a bit more problematic, and the jet lag seems to be more pronounced. Still, the discomfort is fleeting and memories of a great trip make it all worthwhile.)
In July 2007 I made the long flight to South Africa, arriving in Johannesburg. Then after an hour-long commuter flight to Bloemfontein, the capital city of the Free State Province, our group was met by professional hunter and outfitter Mark Haldane of Bird Hunters Africa. Bloemfontein was the first of three wingshooting locations operated by Bird Hunters Africa that we would visit during our 10-day safari.
We collected our luggage and were transported to Oude Kraal Guest Lodge. The property is only 15 minutes from the airport and is well known for its excellent accommodations and cuisine. Bloemfontein is in a rich agricultural region where sunflowers, corn and wheat are the primary crops. As a result, huge concentrations of rock pigeons and doves descend on the area to take advantage of the abundant waste grain. The shooting starts in April and peaks in May, when the sunflowers are harvested. The action is hot during April and May, when it’s easy to shoot up to 1,000 rounds per day. Some fields are used primarily by pigeons, others primarily by doves, and a few fields attract both.
Our first shooting venue was about 30 minutes from the lodge. At the edge of a harvested sunflower field the bird boys set up chairs along a hedgerow for some pass-shooting. Just seconds after we loaded up and sat down to wait, the first flock of five pigeons arrived. The birds came in high and dropped 20 yards as they passed over the hedgerow to enter the field. I stood, picked a bird and dropped it with my first shot. I quickly picked out a second and swung on it, but my shot missed. Down the line, hunting partner Vince Bruccolieri mirrored my results. One of the bird boys was quick to make the retrieves, and soon I was admiring an African rock pigeon. Rock pigeons have chestnut/maroon underparts and are about the size of barnyard pigeons, with distinctive red eye patches.
The morning continued at a fast pace, with singles, pairs and flocks of up to three dozen birds coming into and leaving the field. We hunted both morning and evening that day, with the morning flight proving stronger. We averaged 40 to 50 pigeons per half-day.
The next day we arrived at a harvested sunflower field where doves were the primary quarry. At first the flight was slow, but as the morning progressed the action blossomed. Seldom was there a moment when a dove was not in sight. This type of shooting holds up throughout the season, and during my trip it was easy to fire 500 rounds per day and bag several hundred birds. The doves are a combination of Cape turtle, laughing and red-eye. Doves and pigeons are considered agricultural pests, so there is no limit or season. After the end of each shoot the birds were distributed to local farm workers.
To reach the second hunting area we took a 11/2-hour flight from Bloemfontein to Durban, followed by an hour’s drive to Mbangweni Lodge, near Baynesfield. The lodge overlooks a lake and sleeps eight in four cabins, each with a bath. The hunting is on the 22,000-acre Baynesfield Estate, where Haldane has been operating for eight years.
This location offers some of the best goose hunting in southern Africa. The next morning we were up well before dawn for a 10-minute drive to goose pits that had been excavated earlier in the season. Our group of five was split up between a harvested cornfield and a soybean field. All hands helped set up the decoys, which were painted to resemble Egyptian and spur-winged geese. (Egyptian geese are smaller than snow geese and brownish in color with pink bills and legs and distinctive dark eye patches; spur-wings are black and white with reddish-pink legs and bills, can weigh 13 to 15 pounds, and have large spurs at the joints of their wings.) Once we settled into the pit, I would have sworn we were in Iowa or Nebraska waiting for Canada geese to leave their roost and head for a cornfield laden with waste grain.
It didn’t take long for Shawn van Rhyn, our professional hunter, to announce, “Birds from the east.” Soon we could hear and then see the dozen or so birds heading our way, but instead of the honking and chatter characteristic of geese back home, these were issuing a combination of hisses and grunts that sounded nothing at all like goose music. When the Egyptian geese were 25 yards out and over the decoys, van Rhyn gave the signal and both Bruccolieri and I stood and dropped a bird.
The next goose to decoy was a spur-wing that looked huge as it approached. Bruccolieri’s shot was on-target, and the bird hit the ground with a convincing thud. The action continued with pairs and small groups of Egyptian geese coming to the decoys along with fewer numbers of spur-wings. By about 9:30 the flight had subsided, and a quick check with the other pit revealed that we’d taken 50 birds for five Guns. We called it a morning and headed back to camp.
Baynesfield Estate also offers pass-shooting for pigeons (rameron and rock) and red-eye doves, decoyed-pigeon shooting, and francolin hunting over pointers. The decoyed-pigeon shoot was the highlight of the upland bird action, and in two hours the average bag was 40 to 50 rock pigeons. The birds were shot from pits dug in harvested cornfields, and it reminded me of field hunting for ducks in Canada, with singles, pairs and flocks of up to 40 often decoying inside 30 yards.
The final leg of our trip was a 2-1/2-hour drive to Zulu Wings Lodge, in KwaZulu-Natal Province, near Dundee. The lodge, built in 1996, adjoins a private game sanctuary, and springbok, zebra, eland and ostrich often are visible from the dining room. The region is dominated by agricultural land, with corn, peanut, wheat and dairy farms prominent amid scattered native habitats. The area supports a variety of upland gamebirds and waterfowl, offering excellent mixed-bag opportunities. During a typical stay clients will shoot doves in harvested grainfields, francolin over seasoned pointers, driven guinea fowl, rock pigeons from pits, decoying waterfowl and, at times, walked-up snipe. The hunting takes place within 50-kilometers of the lodge, as Haldane has more than 100,000 acres leased for shooting and therefore the luxury of hunting a specific piece of ground only once or twice a season.
One of my most memorable hunts at Zulu Wings was for francolin. We left the lodge just after sunrise and headed for a lease 20 kilometers away. The hunting area was dominated by tall grass with a few trees and shrubs, and other than being dry—typical during South Africa’s winter, from June through September—conditions were good for the dogs.
About 10 minutes into the hunt one of the pointers locked up and the second dog honored. Haldane motioned for Bruccolieri and me to move in. The moment Bruccolieri reached the dogs a pair of birds flushed from the long grass, and two shots later the first francolin of the trip were on the ground. These were Natal francolin—ruffed-grouse-size birds belonging to the partridge family. We continued working the long grass and found birds regularly in pairs and in coveys of up to eight. Most held for the pointers, although a few flushed wild. It was like hunting Huns or sharptails in tall cover. The majority of the bag were Natal francolin, though other birds in the area include Swainson’s, Shelley’s and Coqui francolin.
After lunch we switched gears and hunted at a stock pond that had good numbers of yellow-billed ducks and red-billed teal. We arrived about 3 pm and stowed our gear in a shoreline blind fashioned from reeds. Our bird boy placed the decoys in front of the blind, and we settled in to scan the horizon. A short time later we spied a small flock of ducks passing out of range. We crouched low in the blind while the bird boy went to work on his call; a series of low guttural quacks turned the birds. I steadied the trembling Lab, who sensed the impending action.
Six yellow-billed ducks pulled back their wings and dove toward the decoys before pulling up at the last minute and making a wide pass. A steep banking turn brought them back into the wind and their final approach to the blocks. At the command “Shoot!” I picked a pair to the right and dropped one of them. Bruccolieri managed a nice double. It was a great start to the afternoon.
For the next two hours the action was nearly nonstop, and when we finally picked up the decoys we had 30 birds between us: a mixture of yellow-billed ducks, red-billed teal, a few white-faced whistling ducks and an Egyptian goose.
Before long Bruccolieri and I found ourselves on the long flight home discussing the world-class hunting we’d just experienced. We agreed that South Africa’s wingshooting is experiencing a modern heyday, with abundant gamebirds, liberal limits and uncrowded hunting areas. Not only that, but a day afield in the African bush is a unique adventure that will be remembered forever.
Author’s Note: For more information on bird hunting in South Africa contact Trek International Safaris, 800-654-9915, www .treksafaris.com.
Gary Kramer is the author of FLYWAYS, A Celebration Of Waterfowl And Wetlands, a 135-page coffee-table book published by Ducks Unlimited that includes 195 photos. Autographed copies are available for $26.90 from Gary Kramer, PO Box 903, Willows, CA 95988; 530-934-3873; www.GaryKramer.net.